20 years ago I started my journey into psychiatry training as a Mental Health Nurse. I gained expertise in a wide range of conditions and treatments in a variety of settings whilst working my way up to Senior Management in 2017. Over the years I’ve been heavily involved in quality improvement work which has focused on coaching and mentoring all disciplines of healthcare staff… However… 

Along the way I experienced my own struggles. I’ve had my own battles with anxiety, OCD, situational stress, bulimia and binge eating disorder. I know what it feels like to be stuck and see life passing you by. I could show up and do my job but that was it. The rest of my life consisted of sitting on the sofa with the junk food on one side and the bottle on wine on the other. I got into the vicious cycle of feeling down because I was stuck so I’d numb the emotion with food but then feel such guilt and shame for what I’d done.

Meanwhile I was also trying deal with fertility struggles and as you can imagine the lifestyle I’d created to self sooth really was not going to do anything to help with getting pregnant. My lowest point; getting to the top of the waiting list for IVF to told my BMI now excluded me from receiving IVF.

So 2018 I made a life changing commitment and investment and worked with a coach. Wow, what an insightful journey that was. It wasn’t easy and there were many tears along the way. Gradually I made my peace with food and developed healthier ways of coping. My weight gain stopped and I started to really focus on self-compassion. Before long I got my mojo back and it was time to start chasing my dreams once again.

Shortly after in early 2020, covid hit and I got the opportunity to go back to working directly with patients. This reignited my passion for working therapeutically. Over the years I had been approached about private work but it never seemed the right step at the time for me. But I decided that once the covid crisis settled I would take the leap into private practice in order to continue to work directly with clients.

But then came a beautiful “spanner in the works”. In May 2021 I ended up in the emergency department on a spring Wednesday morning and was told that after 12 years of trying, I was pregnant. The tears came! But I could see from the Doctors face that he didn’t consider it to be good news. He told me that it was likely to be ectopic. True enough, it was and it took me quite some time to pick myself back up from that blow. But within three months I fell pregnant again and I now have a beautiful boy and darling girl which I thank God for every day.

I truly believe that with the right help, support and therapeutic intervention ANYTHING is possible and my life has been living proof of that.

Whilst I am deeply passionate about the NHS I do feel somewhat frustrated by its constraints. It delivers excellence when it comes to therapies such as CBT and DBT but it is not forward thinking when it comes to the growing evidence base for other therapies such as family therapy, hypnotherapy, neurolinguistic programming, emotional freedom technique, havening, EMDR, and in general any therapy that works with the subconscious mind.

Scientists have known for decades that the unconscious mind is more powerful than the conscious mind. We know from Freuds work that the unconscious mind can have such a big influence on behaviour with up to 40% of our daily activities being habitual. So why would you only work with the conscious mind when you could work with both?  I believe in a much more holistic approach and the more tools you have the better you can work with the WHOLE person.

What Qualifies Me To Work With You?

In terms of working with the conscious mind I have highly evidenced based cognitive behavioural clinical skills that I have acquired over the years as well as experience and a teaching qualification in Behavioural Family Therapy. Years of working in a crisis setting has allowed me to develop my skills in working with those experiencing thoughts of suicide or have made an attempt on their life through the STORM model. Motivational Interviewing is another model I like to use when working for change, especially when considering the here and now with clients struggling with addiction. Recovery based work such as “WRAP” has also been a significant focus of my work completed within the NHS. I am also a fully qualified Independent and Supplementary Nurse Prescriber.

Remaining with the conscious mind I have several coaching and mentoring qualifications gained through the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and also privately from the Life Practice Academy. When considering coaching my expertise to date has focused on Leadership (to include QI and change), Health and Lifestyle. My Leadership Coaching has lead to my teams winning two significant awards – a national Burdett Award and the Chairmans Award within the South Eastern Trust.

Considering the unconscious mind, I have undertaken practitioner training and completed qualifications in EMDR, Hypnotherapy, Root Cause Hypnotherapy, Neurolinguistic Programming and Emotional Freedom Technique. These skills are so powerful and I really enjoy watching the impact they have on someone’s ability to thrive. 

What Way Do I Work With You?

I very much work with a bio-psycho-social approach. We need to be achieving in all three areas in order that we may be able to work to our best ability.

Within bio I can assess and review any potential need for psychotropic medication and advise your GP accordingly. However, it is so important to note that bio does not just pertain to medication – there are many other more ideal ways to bring our hormones and neurotransmitters back in line and for that reason we will focus on sleep, nutrition, movement and stress management.

Within psycho we will be working to improve our thinking and learn strategies to help manage our emotions.  This is achieved through skilled based talking therapy combined with hypnotherapy, EMDR, neurolinguistic programming and tapping in order to work with both the conscious and unconscious mind.

And finally, we address your social needs. This will focus on improving relationships at home and within your community in order to bring about that much needed sense of connection, belonging and purpose.

My Values

• Help clients to realise and use all their potential.
• Provide effective, value for money treatment.
• Always work with a person centred approach.
• Strive for excellence and continue with my own CPD.
• Always work authentically.
• Display respect and genuineness.
• Work with integrity and commitment. 

“Difficult roads lead to beautiful destinations” – Anonymous

LETS DO THIS TOGETHER